An Open Letter to Bill Clinton
GLASS, ANDREW J.
Washington-USA AN OPEN LETTER TO BILL CLINTON By ANDREW J. GLASS Dear Governor Clinton, It's too bad that you aren't old enough to recall the mood hereabouts when Senator John F. Kennedy of...
...Whatever it turns out to be, remember that Kennedy would have shrugged it off with a quip and a smile...
...Your choice of Senator Al Gore as your running mate proved that, in the special universe of political math, one and one can equal two plus interest...
...I'll get to exactly where shortly...
...Don't stiff Congress...
...It would be better for you to mostly stay in one place...
...Their efforts shouldn't be taken lightly, even though there is a widespread feeling in the country that most incumbents, and particularly George Bush, are soiled goods...
...Don't hammer away at Bush...
...Let me quote to you what an expert on the press and politics had to say on the subject earlier this year: "What voters want to know, if they haven't seen you before, is what you stand for, what you're interested in, what about things that affect their lives...
...We are one of the few democracies in the world that fails to fence off the magisterial functions of executive power from the ministerial ones...
...Is there going to be a job there next year...
...The old way meant hitting three or four media markets a day—except when you go to earth to bone up for the debates...
...Tell the people just what you plan to do in your first 100 days in office...
...As JFK proved 32 years ago, to become President, you have to "act Presidential" even before you get the job...
...How can they educate their children...
...But by the time you read this, the Bush sharpshooters, I suspect, will be going full bore to do you in, just as they did in poor Mike Dukakis four years ago...
...Keep trotting out the old family values number...
...Don't campaign...
...So here are four easy pieces of advice from someone who has been around the journalistic track since 1956—from copy boy to Washington pundit...
...If you feel you must go on the attack, let Al Gore lead the charge...
...For all I know, it could be a tape of you standing in an M-1A1 tank while holding a puppy that looks like Snoopy...
...He was "one of the boys," the kind of guy you could get to do a funny turn at the Gridiron Club for elite journalists and their guests, or perhaps to hold forth among newspaper people at a dinner party...
...Don't stay in Little Rock...
...On the other hand, those same insiders would point to Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri and say, "Now, there's someone who looks like a President...
...To make such insights work for you, though, you'll first have to curb your instinct to shake every hand in sight at every airport fence in the land...
...Invite CNN and the other TV types in...
...The lessons for your own race are inescapable...
...But, more important, they tended to see Kennedy only as their young pal "Jack...
...Washington-USA AN OPEN LETTER TO BILL CLINTON By ANDREW J. GLASS Dear Governor Clinton, It's too bad that you aren't old enough to recall the mood hereabouts when Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts let it be known, shortly after the 1956 Democratic convention, that he would seek the Presidency...
...Our Presidents serve as both chiefs of state (traditionally a revered role) and heads of government (usually a dispensable one...
...Give lots of interviews...
...It was much to Kennedy's credit in that election season—as it has been much to your credit so far in this one—that despite such handicaps he forged ahead in the polls...
...They want a good fit...
...Those things by definition are no longer news [in the latter stages of a campaign...
...If you feel the itch to travel, fly up to Harvard Yard and talk to Marvin Kalb under the oaks about foreign policy, your weakest suit...
...That usually comes down to staff fights or personal goofs...
...Pundits like me are a dying breed: We're unlikely to be around by the time your vaunted educational reforms kick in and people start reading again...
...They're every bit as valid today as they were then...
...Instead, cut a deal on Capitol Hill...
...Your opponents, as you well know, will do all they can to milk the powers of incumbency...
...Your turnaround bus trek through the heartland?what the accompanying press corps dubbed "Bill and Al's Excellent Adventure"—proved to be fine theater...
...Then Reagan would not have been able to turn Carter's lines against him...
...In short, under our system there is no handy prime minister who can be dumped right away when things go wrong...
...While the network ratings for the convention were awful, those who did watch the show in New York City by and large liked what they saw...
...Your traveling press brood won't care a hoot about your basic message: They've all heard it too many times...
...How can they go to work and arrive safely...
...For your camera backdrops, use plenty of uniformed cops andlots of the wavy red, white and blue stuff...
...But Congress can snap back quickly if people can see, for a change, that real goals might be achieved...
...Voters are down on Congress nearly as much as they are down on the press...
...Who needs it...
...The words are your own, spoken during the New York primary when a reporter asked why you were having so much trouble getting your message across...
...Even before they get to the personal stuff, and they will, we'll be hearing a lot about the uniquely lousy record of a double-dealing governor of a third-rate state...
...The best way to accomplish this is to quit your current job (no future in it anyway) and move to fresh digs within the shadow of the White House...
...Move your campaign headquarters to Washington...
...Because Kennedy was both smart and tough, he emerged as "the front-runner," never to be dislodged until he gained the party's 1960 nomination on the first ballot...
...Have the Democratic leaders say that your program will get star billing...
...At least not in the old way...
...Voters try out candidates the same way they test a new pair of shoes...
...Finally, don't assume that the ultimate dirty trick in this campaign will concern your sex life...
...Most of the smart money counted him out...
...After all the negative stuff that's been floating out there, campaign season after campaign season, many Americans have had it with political bad-mouthing tactics...
...Your main aim right now should be to raise the comfort level of swing voters with the idea of a President Clinton...
...Of course, it can be done: Former President Jimmy Carter is living proof that it can...
...Try to get your own image work done with a bevy of biblical points...
...To do that, you'll need to shed your tank town image and keep on growing in stature...
...Had Carter bombed Iran during the hostage crisis, however, I think he would have been a two-term President...
...Still, his own pollster, Louis Harris, told him it wasn't until very late in the race against Vice President Richard M. Nixon—when enough people finally came to rest easy with the notion of a President Kennedy?that his chances of besting Nixon moved to firm ground...
...So they'll be on the prowl for what passes for "news...
...To be sure, Kennedy's youth and his Catholicism fed the insiders' skepticism about his prospects...
...So there is an inherent tension between the daily imperative of making a new story and [the politician's] job, which is to get the basic story [out...
...Respectfully, Andrew J. Glass Andrew J. Glass is head of the Cox Newspapers bureau in Washington...
...This time around, for once, a positive spin will work...
...Take full advantage of satellite technology?it enables you to be on the local evening news in 20 top media markets each day...
...That's why, for some people anyhow, the act of dislodging any President, no matter how unpopular he may be, carries with it a whiff of regicide...
...With just a phone call or two to Capitol Hill, you can send that word...
...The need to act boldly is especially acute now that you finally appear to have hit your stride...
...He even would have made it had he refused to debate Ronald Reaganor, at the very rninimum, kept the opposing team from stealing his briefing book for their sole pre-election encounter...
...Heed them and there is every chance you' 11 be moving into the White House next year...
...Even the kind of cute "people" stories that they have shown a tendency to dig up during your bus trip(s) will soon grow stale to them...
Vol. 75 • July 1992 • No. 9
